By a Lady.
London, Dickinson, 1854
Fine views of Lahore and Amritsar. The drawings were selected from an album produced by the wife of a British army officer serving in the Punjab. The artist remains unknown although we do know something of her intentions from the Preface:
'No attempt has been made to draw pictures as they ought to be; the desire has been to convey to an English eye some notion of the bright, vivid colouring of Indian scenes - the strange, and often uncouth attitudes of the natives, - and their costume, as far as the scale of these sketches will admit of exactness. Nothing is more untrue than the heavy, brassy sky, the usual accompaniment of an Indian sketch. The great heat, on the contrary, takes away colour from the atmosphere, and leaves it almost white, leaving the houses, and gay clothing of the natives, all the brighter for the contrast.'
Rare; Abbey speculates that it may have been privately published.
First edition; landscape folio (36.5 x 27 cm approx.), 20 tinted lithographed plates, coloured by hand, crease to title, a couple of captions cropped, contemporary maroon half morocco gilt over green cloth, lightly rubbed, all edges gilt, a very good copy, the plates clean and fresh.
Abbey (Travel), 483; Bobins 266.
'No attempt has been made to draw pictures as they ought to be; the desire has been to convey to an English eye some notion of the bright, vivid colouring of Indian scenes - the strange, and often uncouth attitudes of the natives, - and their costume, as far as the scale of these sketches will admit of exactness. Nothing is more untrue than the heavy, brassy sky, the usual accompaniment of an Indian sketch. The great heat, on the contrary, takes away colour from the atmosphere, and leaves it almost white, leaving the houses, and gay clothing of the natives, all the brighter for the contrast.'
Rare; Abbey speculates that it may have been privately published.
First edition; landscape folio (36.5 x 27 cm approx.), 20 tinted lithographed plates, coloured by hand, crease to title, a couple of captions cropped, contemporary maroon half morocco gilt over green cloth, lightly rubbed, all edges gilt, a very good copy, the plates clean and fresh.
Abbey (Travel), 483; Bobins 266.
About us
Shapero Rare Books is an internationally renowned dealer in antiquarian & rare books and works on paper.
Our Bookshop and Gallery can be found in the heart of Mayfair at 106 New Bond Street, where most of our stock is available to view and on public display.
We exhibit at major international art fairs, including TEFAF (Maastricht and New York), Frieze Masters, Art Miami and Masterpiece London, as well as antiquarian & rare book fairs including New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hong Kong.
